Achara left low as Rocks’ cup woe continues

GLASGOW ROckS captain kieron Achara last night claimed his side must address their failings head on or be condemned to remaining the nearly men of British basketball.

A crestfallen Achara was speaking out after Newcastle Eagles lifted the BBL cup with victory over Sterling Davis’ men in Birmingham.

It is now seven finals and seven consecutive defeats f or the Rocks as their 12-year wait for a major trophy goes on.

Ultimately, despite flourishes in the opening exchanges and moments where it looked as though Newcastle’s own string of showpiece l osses might continue, the English side’s traditional rivals fell away badly in the fourth quarter and never looked like recovering.

‘It comes down to discipline,’ said Achara, who bagged 16 points and 11 rebounds.

‘Newcastle are more defined in their roles: when to get the ball, where to get the ball to.

‘We’re still trying to find out who should be the go-to guy, when to take the right shots and getting the ball at the right time.

‘ We went 5 - f o r- 3 1 from three-point range. You can’t win games that way.

‘We have to find a way to slow the game down, to get the ball in the right places. It’s a team thing.’

The Rocks, against the expectations of many, snatched a brief lead late in the first period when 37-year- old Davis rolled back the years to spark his team i nto li f e. Normal order was quickly restored, however, when Newcastle fired back with a 13-3 run that pushed the favourites 40-29 ahead at half-time. Prize guy: Eagles’ Charles Smith holds aloft the BBL Cup after his side defeated the Rocks

‘I told the guys at the interval that I had full confidence in them, that we could win,’ declared Davis afterwards.

Achara and JaJuan Smith heeded his rallying call, sharing the spoils in a 12-2 burst that slashed the deficit to three.

That, however, was as good as it got for the Scottish side. The response from Newcastle almost i nevitably arrived as t hey captured the BBL cup for the third time.

‘We knew they wouldn’t go down with one punch because we’d played them twice and the road they had to get here was incredible,’ the Eagles playcaller Fab Flournoy admitted. ‘They have a great nucleus and you can see that. It was about trying to cancel that out.’

Propelled by Rahmon Fletcher, the game’s Most Valuable Player, and 21 points from veteran star charles Smith, the Tyneside men accelerated out of sight, leaving Glasgow, currently languishing in a lowly 10th place in the league, to begin their inquest.

‘Newcastle forced us into bad shots and punished us when we took them,’ said Achara, whose team’s top scorer was Smith with 17 points.

Earlier, Sheffield Hatters defeated Nottingham Wildcats 76-62 in the WBBL Trophy Final.